


Strawberries and Cherries

by VenomQuill



Series: Stickmin Collection fics [12]
Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Master Bounty Hunter Ending | MBH (Henry Stickmin), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28485837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenomQuill/pseuds/VenomQuill
Summary: February. It's been two and a half months since the leader of the Toppat Clan, Right Hand Man, was apprehended and the Toppat Clan arrested. It's been two and a half months since Rupert found Dave huddled in the Brig, waiting for death.It's a quiet night outside, cool and brisk.
Relationships: Dave Panpa/Rupert Price
Series: Stickmin Collection fics [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983670
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	Strawberries and Cherries

**Author's Note:**

> Find it on dA:

His life may never be the same.

Had someone sat Dave down a year ago and asked, “What will you be doing a year from now?” Dave would have certainly answered with his current job.

“I’ll be in the force,” he’d likely say. That was what Dave believed, after all; he loved his job and was eager to do it well. But one day a package arrived for a prisoner named _Henry Stickmin_ and he didn’t check it properly. Then, things began to spiral ever steeper down until things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Even now, months from the catastrophe that had been his life in the Toppat’s Brig, he couldn’t stand being near…

Dave’s fingers curled tighter around his mug. The chilly night air pressed down on his jeans and exposed skin and sank into his coat like a blanket. Steam from the gently cooling hot cocoa in his grasp wreathed over his face, simultaneously warming and chilling his nose and cheeks as the steam’s warm caress chilled in the early evening.

The door behind him opened, spilling warm light onto the balcony and releasing the heater’s good work into the ether. Dave couldn’t help a flinch at the sudden noise, at the feeling of light upon his body blocked by the entity who opened it.

_Dave sat in his little cell overwhelmed by maroon–numb and deaf to the world as his unfocused eyes pointed in some direction close to his lap. Dimly, he heard a voice. When he gave no answer or reaction, the door opened, letting in painfully bright light from the stark white lights above. He’d barely turned his head when he felt a hand grab onto the front of his shirt and he was wrenched out of his seat and up so he was nose to nose with a top hat-wearing man, his dark eyes narrowed and wrinkled nose contorting the scar across his face._

He jumped with a shaky gasp, tightening his already vice grip on the cup. Hot brown liquid dribbled over his fingers, bringing with it some foam that had once been a hearty coating of marshmallows.

The door closed and the figure carefully stepped into his view, big soft eyes on him, clutching a mug in one hand and balancing two plates on his arms. “Oi, Dave?”

Dave let out a shaky breath, relaxing just a little upon hearing his soft, warm voice. Standing beside him, just a few inches shorter than he but miles taller by his straight-backed stature, was his former partner in the force. Neither of them were in the force, anymore. That wasn’t something that was changing any time soon. “Hey, Rupert.”

“It’s chilly out here,” Rupert commented, balancing the plates precariously on the flat-topped railing. “Don’t you wanna come in?” Dave let go of his mug with one hand to hold steady a small plate with a slice of strawberry cheesecake to save it from an unfortunate fate involving a few stories of airspace and some prickly bushes.

“It’s a nice night.” Dave turned his attention to the night. The nigh endless forest shivered; its late winter trees bare of leaves no longer barring their sight quite so much. Stars swathed the sky high, high above them.

_Dave paced, but rarely went in a straight line. His feet fell over the hard gray ground and he nearly touched the maroon metal lining of his cell multiple times. The small space made smaller by a bed and toilet, Dave couldn’t move far. Sure, there was room for him to exercise, to do push-ups or try standing on his hands, or to continue his tiny circuit. But hunger gnawed at him insistently. Regardless of how much energy he exerted, he was given the same meals twice a day every day. So, it was either release the built-up energy and tension inside of him, or rest with a full belly. He’d lost enough weight._

“It’s over.” Rupert’s voice was strangely quiet. “The Toppat Clan’s been taken down.”

Dave let out a shaky breath. “I know. It… doesn’t feel like it. Just… any moment now… I’ll wake up. I’ll be back-back _there_. Alone. N-not knowing what will happen next. S-still in that cramped cell–”

The former security guard tensed, his words stuck in his throat as his hitched breath paused. Rupert, his hand resting on Dave’s shoulder, leaned forward a little more to meet his gaze. His fingers were loose on Dave’s shoulder, not at all hinting at tightening into a grip of any sort, but rather laying over his shoulder like a scarf. “That won’t happen, Dave.”

Dave shut his eyes tight. “Th-they’re still out there. They _hate_ us. They just-just want to see us all burn.”

_“You’ve been here a while, guard dog. You thought that Henry bastard was going to help you, didn’t you? You thought the government was going to come in here and arrest us, right? They followed you and took our leader, almost killed his second, didn’t you?”_

“And we’d sooner see them all put away where they belong just like their leaders,” Rupert proclaimed with such great conviction Dave could almost believe it to be a guaranteed truth. “We’re gonna see the last of them, Dave.” His voice lowered again. “Dave, I promise that you will _never_ go through that again. _Ever._ ”

The former security guard opened his eyes a little to meet the soldier’s, his eyes fierce with determination. Dave couldn’t help but lose a little of the tenseness in his muscles, to let himself relax just the smallest bit. He _was_ safe here. With him. “Th… thank you.”

A small smile crept its way onto Rupert’s features. It was so unlike the sneer he wore around prisoners or the cocky grin in a chase. It was soft, sincere, holding nothing but affection. Rupert quickly looked away, back to his plate. “Hey, you want to try a bite of mine…? It’s, uh, not cheesecake, but it’s still good.”

Dave nodded and offered his plate to Rupert in exchange for the first forkful of his dessert. The pie had two golden-brown crusts and it was squishy and full of sugary syrup and fruit. In the light, it looked a little red, though it was difficult to tell in the night. But that was okay because Rupert always had good taste in de–

Dave shut his eyes and swallowed the mixture of crumbly and sweet and coughed. “What the _hell_ , Rupert?!”

But Rupert could barely hear him over his own laughter.

“Cherry pie, are you serious? I didn’t know anyone brought that stuff!”

Rupert tried to wheeze something, but it was lost to his mirth.

“You are just–why do you like those red abominations?”

“Cherries are _good_ , Dave,” the soldier managed to wheeze.

“They’re awful and a disgrace to fruit-kind. Your obsession with them is just crazy.”

“Says the guy who could eat a gallon of strawberries on his own.” Rupert’s laughter had fallen into snickers so at least his words were audible, now.

“Yes, because strawberries are actually _good_.” Dave looked at his own plate with the slice of cheesecake slathered in red syrup and chunks. “…you didn’t poison this one, did you?”

Rupert shook his head, rubbed one of his wrists over his eyes. “No, that’s strawberry cheesecake. I left that for you.”

The former security guard went to start on his own dessert, throwing a shifty glance at Rupert as he did so. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”

“Me neither, honestly. How about we sit over at that table, huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> I literally started the New Year with an absolute love of this ship. I didn't like Panprice for quite a while. Then at 3 AM I stumbled upon [THIS](https://www.instagram.com/p/CJYbI8tgxR7/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet) AND I JUST--  
> kimidori is a great artist, they deserve love.  
> This is how I fell for Copperright, my favorite THSC ship, by the way. "Oh, they're such great friends," I said to myself, took three steps into the fandom, and fell face-first into the Copperright ship.
> 
>  _Anyway_ , decided I wanted to write some fluff! Been sad and writing sad stuff, so behold! Also, I managed a few references to other works of mine, because I'm the kind of person who does that. lol I wanted to post this on New Year's Day, but that was a Friday and I submitted a few DPDS/DSDE chapters then, but I also was like "I'm at the end, I could just keep the story and ending docs together and post this after." So, that's what I did. :P
> 
> Dave is a good boi who deserved none of the things that happened to him-


End file.
